Last time on Anika’s Andor Analysis, Cassian and Bix referenced Anakin and Padmé. They’ve now graduated to Han and Leia.
I love and hate this for them. I love that they are living in the fairytale paradise of Yavin rather than the dystopian slums of Coruscant. I hate that their time there is so short. I love that Bix is thriving despite everything, and I love that Cassian wants to put the Rebellion behind him and live a small, happy life with her. I hate that instead, she gives him up for the cause, and he throws himself into his work, and then he dies, and she’s left alone. And I hate that all of the above can be said of Han and Leia, too. But I love the parallels.
Endor is a “forest,” while Yavin is a “jungle,” but the bottom line is, they are both natural environments. They are lush and green and alive. Bix, like Leia, wears earth tones and her hair loose with little braids.
I love this one a lot. In the top left, we have Bix and Cassian with Wil on Yavin in Andor. In the top right are Han and Leia with Luke on Yavin in A New Hope. Bottom left shows Leia and Luke on Endor in Return of the Jedi, and in the bottom right are Poe, Finn, and Rey on Ajan Kloss in Rise of Skywalker. The OT Yavin image provides the echo, Wil is Bix and Cassian’s Luke. The Endor image displays how the use of staging and costuming enhances that echo. And the ST photo, where the lighting and coloring match up the most, shows that the echoes are compounding. Three trios enjoy a reunion after a successful mission.
I’m not sure I approve of Cassian’s new role as Messenger (it reminds me of Kara Thrace, and I didn’t like it there, either). But it allows for these parallel scenes to show both couples arguing over the Force without ever actually mentioning it, or fully knowing that’s what they were doing, and that I like a lot.
They are so doomed. In a happier universe, a parallel to Han and Leia would be more positive than one to Anakin and Padmé. Anakin and Padmé never had a chance because the end of Anakin’s story was told first—and the same is true for Cassian and Bix, so that parallel was apt.
Han and Leia end Return of the Jedi on a high note of victory (left screencap). But this is the Star Wars universe where happiness is fleeting and every romance ends in tragedy (right screencap).
This cap is from episode four (the previous arc) and as with the trio caps, it connects Cassian and Bix to the tragedies of both Han and Leia (as seen above) and Anakin and Padmé (as seen below).
Cassian, Han, and Anakin want to provide the sense of safety and solace that Bix, Leia, and Padmé crave in these moments. They hold them close and pretend but their expressions tell a different story.
Of course, all of these women also know the precarious nature of their situations.
Bix knows better than Cassian. Bix, like Leia, like Padmé, prioritizes the fight over her feelings, over herself. Cassian, like Han, like Anakin, would like to stop fighting, even if there’s more to do.
Leia was raised to be a rebel but also to serve, to break the system but also to uphold it. Leia, like Bail, Mon, and Padmé, believes in order, just not authoritarianism. Anakin was born and raised in strict hierarchal systems so he leans into both. Han and Cassian hate the empire. They understand and approve of the fight, and they are willing to be in it. But it is not their identity. It is not the life they would choose for themselves. It’s easier to believe in sacrifice when you’ve always been provided for. When you’ve had to fight for every single thing you have, it’s much harder to agree to let it go (see also why Anakin fundamentally does not understand the Jedi precepts).
Bix’s background is more like Cassian’s than Leia’s. But trauma informs all their decisions and Bix said it very clearly. She wants everything she’s been through to be worth it. She wants to win. In that, she is very much like Leia.
These women have given up everything and they want it to matter for more than their individual happiness, their individual lives. There is nobility in the choice, and loneliness.
I love how quiet, still, and dark Bix’s farewell is compared to Cassian’s frenetic, frantic energy in the morning. It’s heartbreaking.
Now on to another couple that’s made some progress from last time. In this case from referencing Anakin and Padmé in Attack of the Clones to referencing Anakin and Padmé in Revenge of the Sith.
Yes, that’s bad.
What if the democracy we thought we were serving no longer exists, and the Republic has become the very evil we have been fighting to destroy?
Syril realizes, slowly and dramatically, that he is being manipulated by Imperial forces, including Dedra, as part of a plan to exploit and destroy Ghorman and its people, not save them from outside agitators or convince them of Imperial superiority so they can all live together in peace and harmony. Feeling betrayed, he confronts Dedra. It goes badly.
Andor is using the aesthetics of these relationships to comment both ways. Syril and Padmé are shocked by the actions of Dedra and Anakin. Dedra and Anakin attempt to explain those actions away as service to the Empire they believe in. Syril and Anakin react with anger and violence. Dedra and Padmé try to de-escalate the situation. Dedra and Anakin offer a shiny future where they can live and love together out in the open if also under the boot of the Empire.
Syril and Padmé die trying to save Dedra and Anakin.
Dedra and Anakin are left behind and alone with their Empire of regrets.
As we all know, Vader loves to stare into space and think about all his wrong choices. The cap above is from Kenobi and he is thinking about Obi-Wan.
This is the first instance of Sad Vader Stares Into Space, from Empire Strikes Back, and in the very top right you can see the Millennium Falcon escaping with his son (and his daughter though he doesn’t know it).
Here we have baby Vader staring into the sun on Mustafar during Revenge of the Sith and Vader again watching a ship escape with his daughter on board, even though he doesn’t know it, from Rogue One. Dedra is, of course, not the only one to mimic/reference Vader on screen.
I think the makers of Kenobi made this parallel just to mess with me. The blue and the red and how they line up with their lightsabers, really suggests something more than an echo. But I digress, the point is Dedra references Vader references Kylo Ren. And Dedra, too, references others.
As I said in the earlier post, Dedra and Mon have been paralleled all along.
Dedra’s desperate desire for her collar to be less tight immediately brought to mind Mon’s unclasping in the season one finale, and the close up on a clenched hand reflected Mon at the Senate last week. In both cases, Dedra is far more frantic than Mon, and for good reason.
But Dedra pulls herself together, and Mon is frantic in the next episode.
Mon has been in the Rebellion from the beginning, from before the Empire, but her position and privilege protected her from the worst of it. She knew of it but she didn’t experience it. Here, it starts to affect her directly. The Senate is no longer safe. She looks at Senators Oran and Organa with the same sorrow and fear.
And that’s for good reason, too. As Oran is escorted out of the building by force he shouts that they will come for them all, that you’re next, and the camera immediately finds Bail, who will be blown up along with his entire planet in a year. Mon’s fear for her friends, and herself, is justified.
She pulls it together and makes a statement in direct opposition to the Empire, and it ends up placing her in a position of significant power in the Rebellion and the New Republic. But like Dedra, like Kylo, like Vader, she’s also alone.
Like Cassian, too.
There are only three more episodes left of Andor. We know where Cassian, K2-SO, Krennic, Saw Gererra, Mon Mothma, and Bail Organa end up. For Dedra, Luthen, Kleya, Vel, Wilmon, and Bix, it remains to be seen. I expect Dedra to be promoted to the Death Star or something similar. I don’t see Luthen surviving. Kleya, Vel, and Wil could go either way. I would really love for Bix to survive. It will be bittersweet without Cassian but that’s better than both dead. My hopes are currently pinned on one possibility.
There’s one more couple in the Skywalker Saga for Cassian and Bix to reference. Bix watching a sunset with Bee-Two would do it.